Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Photo: Contributed

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Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Photo: Contributed

Image 3 of 5

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Photo: Contributed

Image 4 of 5

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Police investigate a fatal shooting on Connecticut Avenue and Sixth Street, July 17.

Photo: Contributed

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Police identify homicide victim

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BRIDGEPORT -- The man shot to death Wednesday morning while sitting in a car on the East Side was 32-year-old Bridgeport resident Kiaunte Ware, city police spokesman William Kaempffer said.

Ware was sitting in the driver's seat of a rented Hyundai on 6th Street between Connecticut and Stratford avenues when he was shot multiple times, Kaempffer said.

After a report of shots fired at 7:30 a.m., officers found Ware with gunshot wounds. He was removed from the vehicle by emergency medical personnel and taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Kaempffer said.

Ware's death is the seventh homicide in Bridgeport this year, including a fatal police-involved shooting, Kaempffer said.

Kaempffer said the investigation remains in its early stages. He did not disclose information on suspects or a possible motive. Officers blocked 6th Street from Connecticut Avenue to Stratford Avenue on Wednesday morning as police investigated.

Witnesses reported that screams were heard before and after the shooting. Neighbors said they knew Ware as "Stretch" and that he recently became a first-time father.

Police searched a gray sedan with New York plates, parked with its door open in front of the multi-family house where the victim reportedly lived.

On May 13 -- Mother's Day -- 22-year-old Robert Rivera was found dead in his car from about a dozen bullet wounds. Police said the homicide took place on Berkshire Avenue, just one-half block west of Noble Avenue, where Rivera lived.

Police said Rivera's car had multiple bullet holes in its left front window and door. Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Oct. 10, 2012, another man was found dead in his car with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. Twenty-five-year-old Dawayne Cobb sat dead in a running car for more than eight hours as people came and went from work and children walked to nearby bus stops in a quiet, residential North End neighborhood.